Love the Ones You Hate
by DarylDixon'sgirl1985
Summary: Voldemort Never Existed, and Werewolf!AU. While on a routine night at work as an Auror James Potter is attacked by a werewolf. Will the prejudices of the Wizarding World spell an end to everything he worked to gain or will James and his boyfriend Sirius be able to keep a lid on things?


**School and Theme: Ilvermorny and Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures**

**Main Prompt: (Pairing of a romantic kind) James Potter/Sirius Black**

**Additional Prompts: (occupation) Auror, and (Behavior) sneaky**

**Year: 2**

**Word Count: 2169**

**Warning for Voldemort Never Existed, and Werewolf!AU. Also for character death, and a slight bit of out of character too. Also I would like to thank everyone who beta read for me. Thank you, secretfanficlover, ClaireBear1982, Chibi-Shibi, Claude Amelia Song, and ViolaMoon! I hope you all enjoy Love the Ones You Hate.**

For the first time in his entire life, James Potter was glad that he and Sirius weren't paired up together at work. He knew that if Sirius knew what he was getting himself into; he'd have tried to talk James down or worse, he'd have run headlong into the danger. Not that that wasn't what James was doing.

A while back, James had gotten some intel on a pack of werewolves led by one of their kind who went by the name of Greyback. This Fenrir Greyback was extorting good wizarding families by going after their children.

But as the intel kept pouring in from his source, an old friend of his from Hogwarts, Remus Lupin, he put the pieces together. This Greyback had been extorting people for longer than just now. This was the same Greyback that had made Remus...like him. He couldn't think of the word werewolf because that word brought with it plenty of bad connotations. That was not Remus. That was Greyback and he _had_ to pay.

So, when James had been partnered up with the new young trainee for the evening he'd told the kid everything about what his source had told him. It was easy to get the kid into a righteous fervor. After all, these young rookies were brought up on the rules that all werewolves needed to be watched for their and the Wizarding World's own good.

Which was what led James to where he was now, looking down at the dead Auror in front of him. He couldn't even remember the kid's name but his face would always haunt James's dreams. The blank stare in the blue-grey eyes, the blood in the sandy blond hair.

Lost in his sorrow, James didn't hear the sound of approaching footsteps, no, paw steps, coming towards him until it was too late to do anything.

The pain was a white-hot blaze that went from his shoulder down to his elbow. He was lucky that he hadn't ended up like the rookie had. Through the haze of the pain, he recognized the wolf in front of him. Not from having seen him before; but from the information that Remus had given him.

James apparated not thinking about anything but the pain and what he had to do to stop it. He knew that werewolves only changed during the full moon. He wasn't stupid to what that meant. Which also meant that he couldn't let anyone know what had happened to him. He couldn't be seen as one of the things that they hunted down or watched.

James stumbled up the steps of his childhood home once he regained his balance and thanked Merlin that his father and mother were gone. They would probably have had a bird if he came home looking a mess like this. They also would have probably insisted on him going to St. Mungos which would have lead to him being found out as a werewolf.

"What I am going to do, Mum, Dad?" he asked the house, as though his parents spirits would hear his plea and tell him what he should do from beyond the grave. But that was silly. If they were still there they'd have spoken up by now.

In the meantime, he focused on finding the items he needed to patch himself up. He was sure that Sirius was home waiting for him. James didn't want to worry Sirius any more than he had to. Sirius hadn't been pleased when they hadn't been paired together as they usually were. He'd made James promise to come back to him unharmed.

After patching himself up as best he could, James looked at his ruined shirt and sighed. There was no way that he was going to be able to hide this from Sirius. But then...an idea came to him like a distant thought.

When his parents were going through their final days, he'd spent several nights here taking care of them. He'd had to leave a couple of spare clothes here. Running up to his old room, he rummaged through the forgotten drawer of his clothes until he found a shirt that looked like the ruined one. Quickly changing into it he looked himself over in the mirror.

Nothing looked amiss. He'd done a good job of cleaning up the blood from his body. The only thing that would lead anyone to know that something was wrong would be the scars on his arms. But those could have come from any number of things. A spell backfiring, a glass door shattering, a suspect assailing him with a knife. As sneaky as he was being. He didn't want Sirius to have to choose between him or wizarding society.

After he'd made sure that everything seemed to be in order he apparated home. James could feel the exhaustion taking over him already. It had been a long day and all he wanted was to eat some dinner and get into bed. But Sirius had other ideas.

"Where have you been?" Sirius asked, arms folded over his chest and look of disapproval on his face. "Your partner was found dead a few moments ago. I was so afraid that you'd been killed too or worse. The area he was found in is a known hot spot for werewolf activity, James."

"We were there to investigate crimes in the area," James said, not wanting to give more away than that at the moment. "But apparently we'd gotten some bad intel. Nobody saw any crimes being perpetrated in the area and we left."

"Abernathy must have disagreed with your assessment and went back," Sirius said, shaking his head. "Why can't rookies just do as they're told?"

"They baby these kids too much. Did you save me any dinner, Pads?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I haven't eaten yet. I was worried sick about you, you fool! What do you want to do for dinner?"

"I'm good with whatever you want," James said with a yawn.

They'd settled on going to a small bistro down the street from their house. They'd had one of James's favorite meals ever but his appetite wasn't the same as it usually was. He picked at his food, the image of Abernathy's blank face staring at him the entire time. He'd basically blamed the kid for his own death. Maybe one of these days, when things had changed, he'd tell Sirius what really happened. He just couldn't do that right now and it was making him feel miserable.

That night as he climbed into bed curled up in Sirius's loving arms he wondered if Sirius noticed anything amiss about him. If he did, Sirius certainly wasn't mentioning anything. Thanking his lucky stars James fell asleep to the sounds of his boyfriends beating heart in his ear.

############################################################################

The first full moon was torture. James could now say that he fully understood what Remus Lupin had been going through during their childhood and he didn't like it. Not one bit. The pain, he could deal with. The pain was nothing. It was the not being able to tell anyone about what was happening that was the problem.

James had made up some excuse for not being home that night so that Sirius wouldn't get suspicious of what was going on. He'd claimed that he was tracking down Abernathy's killer which in part was the truth. During his work days he had been tracking down Abernathy's killer. But he just couldn't bear to tell Sirius the truth of what was going on now.

James felt his nails elongate into claws. It felt like what he assumed having one's fingernails torn out would feel like. Then came the crack and crunch of bones as his features morphed into that of a wolf.

He screamed and screamed until the screams became howls. The howls of a beast, no, a being, being tortured. Which was true. This was torture. This was the worst kind of torture one could endure. He felt sorry for all the werewolves out there who weren't lucky enough to have understanding people, like he and his friends were for Remus.

He passed the full moon in his childhood home. He knew that it was a sign of disrespect to his parents. Being purebloods they wouldn't have wanted a person like him in their house had they been alive, even if it was their son. But where else could he go? Where could he go that Sirius wouldn't think to check looking for him?

############################################################################

The next day he told Remus because Remus was the only one that could understand what was happening to him. Remus was the only one who was like him out of their small friend group. He made Remus promise not to tell a soul about what he was and Remus had agreed. He didn't want to see Sirius or James hurt. So James and Remus started making excuses for James not to be at home during the full moon. Ones that wouldn't look fishy if Sirius started to question things. After all, it wasn't strange for a friend to help another one move, was it?

But as the months went on, James could see that Sirius was starting to get suspicious after all. It was the little things that led him to this conclusion. Like when James and Remus would whisper amongst each other. When James would go missing during the full moon. Most of all; when James would show back up covered in bruises, cuts, and scratches he hadn't had when he left. The day after the last full moon everything came to a head as James was sneaking back into the house he and Sirius shared.

"Nice of you to come home tonight, Prongsie," Sirius said, turning on the light and folding his arms over his chest. "What Remus too busy today?"

"What?" James asked in a daze.

"Don't play the fool with me, James Potter. I know you've been seeing Remus behind my back for quite some time now. What? Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

James felt his heart plummet into his shoes. He had thought he was protecting Sirius from what he was, when in reality he was making himself look guilty, which he was. He just wasn't guilty of what Sirius was accusing him off.

"It's not that, Sirius," James said pleadingly. "Trust me whe…"

"Trust you? Trust you?" The anger was rising in Sirius's voice by this time. His face taking on the thunderous look of a majestic God about to strike his unknowing victim down. "What reason have you given me to trust you? Messing around with Remus behind my back certainly isn't one!"

"It's not what you think. Remus has just been helping me with a problem."

"What problem is that?"

James sighed. Keeping this secret was beginning to ruin not only his life, but his relationship with Sirius as well. This wasn't going to be an easy pill to swallow but he had to stop this. He had to be honest about what was going on.

"I was trying to protect you," James sighed.

"From finding out about you and Remus?" Sirius scoffed angrily.

"No. Do you remember the night Abernathy died?"

Sirius nodded pointedly but said nothing.

"I wasn't honest about the entire goings on of that night. Abernathy didn't get himself killed. We were investigating Fenrir Greyback. I was investigating him. Abernathy was easy to convince to go along with the investigation. They really do have these rookies trained to hate my kind ..."

"What do you mean your kind?"

"I didn't hear Greyback approach. I was...I was ambushed after I found Abernathy dead. I couldn't get my wand before Greyback got the jump on me." Another sigh escaped him. "Before I knew it, I was at my parents house patching myself up. I didn't want to worry you. I know how much of a mother hen you can be at times."

"Are...are you a werewolf, Prongsie?"

James nodded sadly. "I can understand if you want me to move out and never speak to y…"

"Don't be foolish," Sirius snapped. "We didn't make Remus an outcast and we are certainly not going to make you one either. Come here." He held his arms open for James.

James walked into Sirius's open arms. He had never been more glad that Sirius was such a rebel than he was right now. He knew that Sirius was speaking from the heart but he was sure that the rest of the Auror team wouldn't see things the way Sirius did.

"We can't tell anyone outside of us, and Remus," James said.

"What about Peter?"

"He'd only tell our superiors to get into a good position of power. The less he knows the better for now."

Still, it didn't sit well with James that he had to lie to certain people. It wasn't something he was comfortable with but until things changed, that was what he had to do.

**Also for Amulets and Talismans: Talismans with Unsettling History Task 3: Chimney-sweeps - Write about someone facing danger at work. I hope you all enjoyed Love the Ones You Hate as much as I enjoyed writing it. **


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